Backed by Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, the South Korean mobile carrier and internet provider KT said that it has launched a blockchain-powered smartphone app called the Study of Health Information for Next Epidemic (SHINE for short). The app, said the company, will gather data for researchers, and could be used to power AI, blockchain, and Big Data-driven efforts to provide key insights to medics fighting highly infectious diseases.

The full gamut of industry 4.0 technologies, blockchain included, may need to be used in tandem with one another in order to fight back against the coronavirus pandemic — and that theory could well be put to the test as a new app featuring Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data and blockchain technology rolls out in South Korea.

The project has been in the pipelines for over half a year. In April 2020, KT announced that it was teaming up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A number of other players from the South Korean healthcare and medical IT scene have also been working on the app, including the Korea University Medical Center and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, as well as Mobile Doctor, a smartphone app developer that specializes in health-monitoring software. The blockchain firm MediBloc, run by medical professionals-turned blockchain businesspeople, is also onboard.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency may end up playing a wide variety of roles in the healthcare world of the future. But for now, tech initiatives seem to be centering on the way that data is gathered, shared, and used — and tokenizing the whole process.

Don’t miss the opportunity to travel safe and secure with XcelTrip, a decentralized travel platform where you could book your journey with Cryptocurrency. Make the process easy and comfortable. XcelTrip cares about your unforgettable emotions during traveling.